Medieval Divination by Unexpected Incidents

The Tabula prenostica Salomonis

Bibliographic Data

ID22353618
AuthorsTim Hertogh (University of Oslo), Carine Van Rhijn (0009-0009-0815-629X, Utrecht University), Bruno Schalekamp (Independent Scholar Utrecht The Netherlands), Petra G Schmidl (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Year2023
Volume4
Issue2
Pages81-103
Publication date2023-08-30
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Divination and Prognostication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2589-9198 • E-ISSN: 2589-9201
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/25899201-bja10003
OpenAlexW4386441919
LanguageEN
References cited6

This article explores a little-known prognostic table, the so-called Tabula Salomonis , in its four oldest Latin manuscript witnesses from between ca. 1000 and 1300. Unusually for Latin prognostic texts, the table employs unexpected incidents such as animal sounds, sneezes, and bodily twitches combined with the signs of the zodiac as its starting point. Interestingly, the sources for the Tabula , a series of Late Antique texts from which the author “picked and mixed,” are not extant in Latin. Given a parallel tradition in Arabic, the authors argue that the Tabula ’s direct precursor is not a Greek text (as is the case for many contemporary prognostic texts in Latin), but an Arabic work. This would make it the earliest attested prognostic text translated directly from Arabic into Latin

Ancient history · Antique · Arabic · Art · Divination · Extant taxon · Latin Americans · Linguistics · Literature · Medieval Latin · Byzantine Studies and History · Classics · Computer Science · Historical and Linguistic Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Philosophy

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